Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Mark7]

Crazy story. Recently, a friend of mine revealed something he did in college that he thought was legal, but almost turned into an ethical disaster.

He took a class at school that a friend of his took last year, and when the midterm came around...he asked this friend about what things to study for, and instead, his friend ended up offering him the exam, but this was an exam from a year ago.

He told me at the time he felt unsure about using an old exam as a study aid because of the possibility of an unfair advantage, but in the end he was convinced that there is no danger, because this was from a year ago and the exam (and perhaps the format) could have changed by then.

However, after studying for hours and using the exam as a practice, he went into the exam confident that he could do his best to pass.

Then he told me that the worst case scenario occurred: the test that was given was the SAME EXACT test that he studied from, in other words...the teacher never wrote a new one in the first place!

Of course he did great on the exam, and he purposefully did mess up on some few questions so he wouldn't seem like he knew every answer, but he told me felt like garbage, the whole day.

So after a few of us counseled with him and gave him encouragement, he finally got the courage to make it right and go talk to the professor. Surprisingly, my friend told me his professor laughed when he revealed what happened, and joked that "I'm surprised you didn't get a higher grade!" He told me his prof said that since he didn't know that this old exam was going to be the exam, he must have studied for the other material (review sheets, the problems) to prepare for it. In other words, it was an honest mistake. So, thankfully, he was let off the hook.

But we still talk about this issue though: do you guys think its ethically wrong to use an old exam to study for an upcoming one? Is it consider cheating? Or if an old exam gets out into the open, its fair game to anyone who gets their hands on it?

I mean, schools talk about cheating as using "unauthorized materials to assist on a exam," but is an old exam unauthorized, or since its in the open its fair game?

I don't think schools really define this well enough, or else my friend would never have been in this predicament. Let me know what you think.

[huffdaddy]

[ilovebdt]

Of course.
When I was at secondary school and less so at uni, we always used old exam papers to practise with.

Plus, he was honest enough to go to his prof and tell him what had occured, so he has no reason to feel guilty.

Lazy prof giving the same exam every year

ilovebdt

[laogaiguk]

Ya, every single one of my classes old exams in computer science was on file at the engineering library for perusal. So were many of my other subjects too. It was just assumed you DID look at the old exam to figure out the general format and wouldn't worry about that when you got there. Still, my first year physics prof used the same midterms every three years. He also left them (somewhat hidden) on his website. They were also multiple choice. It was pathetic really (though I still did out every question just to make sure...). ABDCADBCED = 100%

[mnhnhyouh]

Where I did my first undergrad degree all the old exams sat in a small room in the library. I photocopied all the relevant ones in the first week of term to avoid the rush. Also reading them in the first week allowed me to see how much different the terms material was from previous exams.

h

[RACETRAITOR]

At the university I went to, there's an exam registry where you can buy previous exams for any class. I was taking a second-year anthro class, and one of my friends got his hands on a copy of last year's final exam.

Yes, it turned out to be the exact same exam. My friend spent five minutes marking down the answers, then got up and handed it in a good solid hour before anyone else finished. He got a nearly perfect grade in that class.

Perfectly legal in that case, because it was the university who sold it to him.

[eamo]

The term for old exams in the UK is 'past papers'. They are seen as a central part of exam preparation. You have to study them to get an idea of what you are going in to.

If the Prof didn't bother his ass to write new questions then the students should benefit without any guilt at all.

[Juregen]

there is nothing wrong with studying old exams at all

I did it all the time

If the professor does not have the intelligence to make new exams, that is his fault.

Old exams are public information

BASTA